Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Books and Beading

I was recently asked by Soft-Flex, a leading company of beading wire, to write about Books and Beading. You can read the article by clicking here.

To the left is a snippet of one of my many bookshelves, filled with an eclectic assortment of books. The top shelf has a lot of antique books and some old college literature texts, while the second shelf has some modern novels and classics. I also like to decorate my bookshelves with this and that, mementos, trinkets, and treasures. Here you see a huge chunk of Swarovski crystal given to me in celebration of my new office, one of my favorite photos of me and a best friend from my stay in Korea, and a collection of Zack's sand art.

Books are well-loved in this house, and even though I've cut my book budget dramatically, using the library more often, there's just something to be said for walking up to the counter of Barnes and Noble and plunking down a stack of books and knowing they'll be gracing my night stand for days to come. Some people collect stamps or art -- I collect books.

I just finished a fantastic historical fiction book by Sharon Kay Penman, an amazingly well-researched book about King Edward and King Henry III called "The Sunne in Splendour". If you like that sort of thing, you'll just love it. Royalty, intrigue, betrayals -- all covering a span of 35 years.

I finished it last night, so of course I ran out to the library first thing this morning to get another of her books.

6 comments:

I have collected a few books to use for altering. Yet when i get home open them look at the beautiful etchings and some of the wording I cannot bring myself to do it. This is why now I have a large collection!

I, too, am a huge reader. Always have been, imagine I always will be. For years I listened to music when I sewed. Now I have seen the light and I listen to books instead. It is awesome, because I wouldn't actually be able to read and sew at the same time and now I can. I only listen to books while I am working, which makes me want to work more so that I can find out what happens. I still read other books at night. And magazines. Let's not forget the magazines. Anyway, great article.